Road Lottery

Winning the Road Lottery is almost as big a prize as any million dollar lottery.  Every year thousands of people put in for the chance of driving through Denali National Park, home of Mt. McKinley.  The 93 miles of road through the park is open to private vehicles for just four days a year.  The lucky 400 "cars" who win the draw can drive past mile 15 (as far as you can drive on any given day), if you aren't so lucky you can join the millions of others who come to visit by taking a bus. Rick's "beginners luck" touch (remember the halibut?) was working for us and we drew out the first time we put in.


WARNING:  Lots of pictures -- most if not all you have seen on Facebook.

George Parks Highway, driving north to Denali National Park

Map of the "Road"

First stop.  Would like to see this "river" at break up.

There is never a guarantee that you will be able to see Mt. McKinley.  The mountain is hidden by clouds more often than not and you can count your self fortunate if you get an opportunity to see it.  We had beautiful clear skies all morning, but by 1:30 pm it was completely obscured by the clouds.

Polychrome Pass - going up is not too bad, coming down is another story

We were calling this the tundra until Robert told us that it is taiga. 

We almost missed the fall colors.

Perfect spot for lunch.  The rules are: don't get close to the wild animals, but feel free to get out and hike anywhere.

Methuselah

Dahl Sheep

Momma bear and her two cubs.  These are brown bear, known as grizzlies in the lower 48.  They are so light in color I wondered if it's because they eat berries rather than the darker brown of the bear that eat fish.

Maybe Robert knows....

Overcast by early afternoon.

Testing out his Gore Tex shoes, 

We made it to the end of the road!

Wildlife tally:  6 moose, 33 Dahl sheep, 11 bear, 0 caribou

Mileage:  92.6 miles in, 92.6 miles out, and 170 miles home (we drove up the night before)

We had a great time.  It was all we expected it to be and more.  It did our souls good to drive through the beautiful wide outdoors.  We just could not get over how far we could see.  I feel a little hemmed in by the trees, as beautiful as it is to live in the mountains, I just need the wide open spaces to breath. I thought of the song I learned years ago in 7th grade chorus..."Give me land, lots of land, neath starry skies above, don't fence me in..."